No, the American Dream is unattainable.

For many years, the United States has been known for its seemingly endless opportunity. One of its most popular and appealing prospects has been the American Dream, or rather the idea that if one works hard enough he or she will be prosperous and, in turn happy. Although years have passed since the great influx of immigrants to the shores of Ellis Island, the dream still remains, but is it still attainable?

Much has changed in America, from culture to finance, yet the determination to achieve stability has remained constant. For the every day 4 person family, the average annual income is about $50,000 which is decent. Though, like most things you put your mind to, you have to start from the bottom and work your way up. This way of life tends to relate to employment. For example, starting at a job that only provides you with a minimum wage salary, which is around $9.00 per hour in the state of New York. While the typical upper class family makes about $300,000 or more a year, which means to be able to say the infamous line by Drake, “Started from the bottom now, we’re here,” you’d have to work about 672 hours per week between two adults on minimum wage. There aren’t enough hours in a day to manage such a thing and it would be too physically demanding. In order to afford to feed a standard family of four, a family would need to pay anywhere from $146 to $289 dollars a weeks on groceries. Living life becomes very discomforting on an income so insufficient.

To those who might think it is a full proof plan to come to the Land of Opportunity, the American Dream is beginning to seem exactly what it is labeled as, merely a dream.

-Somari

The American Dream is a set of ideals which promotes success and social mobility through means of hard work and dedication. This is deeply rooted in the Declaration of Independence, which states that “all men are created equal” and have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This uniform “dream” has been achievable through the 20th century, yet is becoming more and more difficult to reach as time passes.

Higher education is essential in order to get a job nowadays; the only issue is how expensive college actually is. The tuition for North Carolina State University has increased by over 850% between the years 1977 and 2013 while minimum wage has only increased by approximately 215% during that same period of time. This considerable difference makes it nearly impossible to work in order to pay off schooling. There has also been an extensive decrease of state support for public colleges over the years. One credit at Columbia University in 1970 cost $40; a credit at Columbia in 2014 costs $1624. That is a 3960% difference over only over 44 years. If that wasn’t difficult enough, the interest rates on student loans are only getting higher. This leads college students to be in debt for years after they finish their schooling.

This is not helped by the considerable wage gap between men and women. White women make $0.78 to every dollar a white man makes. This gap is even larger when you consider people of color. Black women only make $0.64 to every dollar a white man makes and Latina and Hispanic women only make $0.54. This makes it significantly more difficult for women, especially women of color, to achieve the American Dream, no matter how hard they work. Jobs also provide considerably less benefits than they once did. Benefit pensions and 401K retirement plans are becoming a thing of the past in order to cut costs for the business.

So is the American Dream a rational belief? The answer is no for the majority of Americans. This “Land of Opportunity” is failing in many ways for the generations to come and it’s only getting worse.

-Morgan

Yes, the American Dream can be achieved.

The American dream is “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” So is the American dream still out there or is it now just a dream? According to a poll, 6 out of 10 Americans believe that the American dream is dead. Yet the 4 out of 10 Americans still believe the American dream is real, people just don’t see it. The American dream is real but the dream has changed, it’s not the same dream it was 10 or 20 years ago.

Before the American dream was having a high-paying job/ career. Now, the American dream is having the opportunity to start a career that sparks your interest, although it may not please your wallet. The American dream is to be happy with ones career. If the career that person chooses to pursue is hard to live off by, that person has to work harder and build their way up, to make their career go with their expenses. For example, if a person chooses to be an actor, they first have to study the subject so they know the material. With a lot of work, a once starving artists could find themselves walking the red carpet or even winning an Oscar. At first that person earned very little but with hard work and patience they achieved their American dream. That same person could’ve chosen another career to fulfill the traditional, idyllic American lifestyle,but that’s not what they had in mind. They wouldn’t be achieving the modern dream since it was not the dream they had intended to pursue, but the dream that is taught to equate to life success.

60 % of Americans believe that the American dream is a person that strives for a career that will earn them the most money, not happiness. The American dream that everyone was taught to seek at a young age. Many believe that this American dream is unachievable or non existent because of racial and gender inequality. A majority amount of people assume that this American dream mainly works for a white male American citizen. Another reason this American dream isn’t attainable is because of how hard it is to find a job in today’s world. This “American dream” shouldn’t be considered as a dream because only a few can achieve it.

The American dream is attainable, it just isn’t the American dream one is taught to pursue at an early age. If a person follows a career that they believe in and work hard with patience, at first they won’t be “living the dream” but that person will eventually achieve the true American dream. One shouldn’t follow a career that they feel they should follow because they will earn the most money in it because that isn’t really a dream. Money can’t buy happiness, but following your dreams can.

-Paola